Film is a veiled look at Scientology

It’s a movie about cults based on fictional characters, says the director. But it’s hard to miss the inspiration behind The Profit.

The main character is a science-fiction writer who founds a religion. Get it?

The leader starts the Church of Scientific Spiritualism. His name: L. Conrad Powers.

The full-length feature film was written and directed by Peter Alexander, a 20-year Scientologist who broke from the church in 1997 and now calls it an elaborate fraud. It was funded in part by Bob Minton, the Church of Scientology’s most vocal critic.

And in three weeks, it will be shown to the public for the first time at an independent theater in none other than Clearwater, the mecca for Scientologists who come there from around the world for church counseling. St. Petersburg Times